pbuilder-dist precise build *.dsc fails
You first need to create a pbuilder instance locally. To do that, run the command:
pbuilder-dist precise create
This will create the .pbuilderrc and the ~/pbuilder/precise-base.tgz that you are missing.
After that, you can build your .dsc as normal:
pbuilder-dist precise build ../gedit_3.1.1-0ubuntu4.dsc